This page is devoted to my recreations of beads from the past.  To learn more about my on-going experiments and research into recreating ancient beads click here for the blog.

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600 Bc Phoenician
Eye Beads
481-221 BC China
600-1400AD Islamic
9th – 11th century AD Egypt
8th century to 11th century AD Viking

The event that got me started on this adventure was a trip to Newfoundland.  I was excited to visit L’Anse aux Meadows but wasn’t prepared for just how big an impact this site would have upon me.

For anyone unfamiliar with the area,  L’Anse aux Meadows is the site of a Viking settlement at the tip of Newfoundland’s Northern peninsula.  Just the location alone had me feeling I had stepped out of one world and into another, but to find such history up there changed my whole perspective.

Map borrowed from Canadian Geographic Magazine http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/oct09/northern_peninsula_map.asp

I’m originally from England, and one of the things I missed most when we came to Canada was the history, the really old places where you almost felt you could slip back in time and experience something altogether different.  L’Anse aux Meadows, it turned out is that place for me in Canada.

L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland

One thing I was hoping to find were replica Viking beads — there were whalebone carvings, silver and copper amulets, pins, naalbinding, books,  but no real Viking style beads.  When I got home I decided this was something that needed recreating, and I set about researching what beads from that era would have looked like.

These designs are typical of those that would have been around in the Viking Age

From Viking Age beads it was just a small leap back to find other styles that would have pre-dated them, and that is where I am at the moment.  I’ve started recreating glass beads from the earliest known examples up to and including the Viking Age designs.  This means approximately 3500 BC up to around 1050 AD.

Beads have been around for much longer than 5-6000 years, but human-made glass beads were a later addition to body adornment.

Here is the timeline I’ve created so far, I hope you enjoy looking. I’ll be adding to it as I go, and am always grateful for new information, or corrections if there is something I haven’t got quite right!

600 BC: Phoenician Head Beads

The Phoenicians were leading maritime traders in the ancient world of Mediterranean culture.
It is thought this type of bead served as a protection amulet to ward off evil.  Over time the face was simplified into what came to be called ‘eye beads’.  These type of heads were formed around a core of sand and decorated with fine strings of glass.

Eye Beads

These 'eye' beads were created using pulled cane that was then inserted into the softened glass to create the eye shapes

Eye beads account for a large portion of ancient glass beads.

In one form they are found decorated with layered dots and rows of raised dots.  As an evolution of Phoenician head beads, the layered dots symbolise faces reduced to their most important feature — the staring eyes.

These eyes can also symbolise the markings on a cobra — another symbol used to ward off evil — since the cobra ate rats who brought disease.

The colour blue was used prolifically in this style of bead, which in itself was a form of protection.  One of the names for ‘glass’ in Chinese is ‘biliu’ and it’s likely this word is where the name for the colour ‘blue’ originated.

An interesting paper on Eye Beads can be found here.

481-221 BC: Warring States Beads

Warring States style bead

Warring States beads are known as such because of the period and location that they originate from. They were originally created in China circa 500BC –- a time when regional warlords annexed smaller states around them and consolidated their rule.  This period eventually culminated as the beginning of the Qin Dynasty.

The glass used in these ancient beads varied from the soda lime glass that most beadmakers use today.  Instead, it was a lead-barium glass. There’s some speculation as to why barium was used -– possibly to increase flux in the glass or create more opacity.

At the beginning of the Warring States period these beads would have been highly prized and found in tombs of high ranking individuals, but as time passed they became more common and more accessible to a larger part of society.  There is an interesting Wikepedia article about them here.

Not all of these beads were as complex as the one pictured above, but they all contained rings of concentric colours.

Some of them had a flat surface and others had raised rings of colour — beads with raised bumps are known as ‘horned’.

Here’s a link to Beadopedia with a rather nice picture of a horned bead

This is a necklace I created based on this style of bead. I’ve taken artistic license with the colours.

Warring States Necklace

There are contemporary bead makers out there today who are creating amazing examples of ancient bead designs — check out Larry Brickman’s site, and also look for beads by Tom Holland. You’ll see not only Warring States beads, but other beautiful recreations from ages past.

600 to 1400 AD: Islamic Folded Beads

These beads were used as trade goods and have been found throughout Africa, Europe, the Mediterranean, India, Asia and even Scandinavia. The method in which these beads were made was lost over the years, but now it’s possible to recreate them again thanks in part to contemporary glass bead artist Tom Holland.

Glass is wound around the mandrel in a disk shape and then heated and folded to create the distinctive patterns for which these beads have become known.

9th – 11th century AD: Fustat/Morfia/Morphia Beads

These designs are named after Fustat in Egypt — now a part of old Cairo. They were created by fusing twisted rods of glass around a central rod, creating a zig-zag design.

The original bead is on the left and my recreation on the right.

The image is from Ancient Beads World, a wonderful resource full of images of historical beads.

I like the herringbone pattern that is created not by raking or combing the design, but by laying lengths of twisted cane side by side.  If you look carefully you’ll notice that the stripes of colour do not line up as they would if the design was combed. I am struck by the intricacy of these beads.

To create a Fustat I first made a base bead, then laid the twisted cane on it end to end, alternating the cane to create the pattern.  The ends of the bead are difficult to shape nicely because of all of the  cane ends but I think with some practise, nicely rounded ends could be achieved!

I found a description here of how these beads may have been made originally, which states that there was no inner core bead.  The stripes of twisted cane would have been laid side by side around the mandrel (or maybe no mandrel?) to create the design.  The bead would have been finished by grinding, most likely to create the nicely shaped ends.  There is even a description of the cane used in the bead pictured in the link, which apparently had a transparent green centre with this order of colours around it: wide white, thin red, wide brown, thin red.

Late 8th century to 11th century AD: Viking Age Beads

Most of us probably have a very stereotypical view of Vikings in our minds, some of which holds truth and some of which does not.

Who do you think Vikings were?

The term Viking has come to represent a race of warriors who traveled in ships and invaded, plundered and pillaged wherever they went.  Viking is also used in representing the Nordic race during a particular time in history.

Most Nordic people of this time period were farmers, and their society was based on clans, each led by a Chieftain or Lord who was responsible for a certain area.  As you might imagine this didn’t lend itself to a particularly peaceful culture.  In order to maintain power, each Chieftain had to recruit followers who would work for him and fight for him when necessary.  In return for work, taxes and loyalty a Chieftain would work to protect his people.

Besides land and followers a Chieftain’s value was measured in possessions — including jewellery which, of course, brings us to beads!

Several possible glass beadmaking sites have been found dating to the Viking Age, including Birka and Frojel in Sweden, and Ribe in Denmark.

Visit the Dark Ages Recreation Company to find out more about beadmaking in Viking times.

You’ll also find some wonderful Bead Recognition Charts on DARC based on Johan Callmer’s research into Viking Age beads.

The Viking Answer Lady is a great resource for all things Viking and

The Canadian Mysteries site has a lot of Viking information and clues to who exactly may have been at L’Anse aux Meadows

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To learn more about my on-going experiments and research into recreating ancient beads click here for the blog.

Timeline: Glass Beads
Glass has always been around in it’s natural form, obsidian, but there is evidence to show that humanity first created glass around 3500BC.  Some of the first objects made from glass would have been beads.

3400BC: Egypt Faience (non-clay based ceramic)

2300-2200BC:  Mesopotamia Glass — thought to be first man-made glass

2000BC: Egypt Glass — wound & core methods — recreating the look of precious stones

1500BC: more complicated mosaic beads

1200BC- 2BC: Phoenician beads created mainly for export — heads, eye beads.

480-220BC: China Warring States

200BC- 500AD: Roman

8-11AD: Viking Beads

500-1400 Islamic